Noach: War

Noach: War

This week’s events: the cruel murder and kidnap of Israelis by an organized and armed brigade from Gaza followed by a mobilization by the IDF, a siege of Gaza and an exchange of Israeli bombs for Gazan missiles dominates my thoughts.  The weekly parsha helps me contextualize.

 

This week’s parsha is Noah.  Several famous narratives come together and diverge to make up this chapter: Noah builds the ark.  The flood destroys all land animals, including people. Noah stratifies his sons, enslaving one to another. The potential unity of the world is shattered by the diversification language  at the tower of Babel.

How do these stories relate to this horrible week?

The story of the flood informs us that terrible weeks occasionally occur, and we can survive them. Not everyone survives, but it is the survivors who tell the story. The story survives.

The realization that catastrophe will probably occur again motivates building an ark, following the model of Noah. The state of Israel was intended (by many) as an ark for the Jews. After millennia of persecution as a stateless people, Israel would protect the Jews from enemies The attack by the organized Hamas thugs justified the need for a state to protect a people who have unappeasable enemies. Israel is the ark.

Israel caused the displacement of people who had occupied that land for centuries.  The resolution of these issues remains a painful process. The attack did not contribute to the solution. It added to suspicion and hatred and sadness.

The story of the curse of Ham, father of Canaan is difficult.  It turns brother against brother.  It justifies the enslavement of one people by another. It tells me that I do not understand the world this came from. I do not understand the world I live in, either. I look away from enslavement that is accompanied by a paycheck. I choose not to see bondage to social and economic systems. I want to grow out of this story.

 

וַיְהִ֥י כׇל־הָאָ֖רֶץ שָׂפָ֣ה אֶחָ֑ת וּדְבָרִ֖ים אֲחָדִֽים׃

Everyone on earth had the same language and the same words.

Before the tower of Babel, people understood one another.  They wanted to remain unified.  That is why they built the tower

וַיֹּאמְר֞וּ הָ֣בָה ׀ נִבְנֶה־לָּ֣נוּ עִ֗יר וּמִגְדָּל֙ וְרֹאשׁ֣וֹ בַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וְנַֽעֲשֶׂה־לָּ֖נוּ שֵׁ֑ם פֶּן־נָפ֖וּץ עַל־פְּנֵ֥י כׇל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃

And they said, “Come, let us build us a city, and a tower with its top in the sky, to make a name for ourselves; else we shall be scattered all over the world.”

The unification that they sought is placed within an industrial context. Much is made of making bricks,

וַיֹּאמְר֞וּ אִ֣ישׁ אֶל־רֵעֵ֗הוּ הָ֚בָה נִלְבְּנָ֣ה לְבֵנִ֔ים וְנִשְׂרְפָ֖ה לִשְׂרֵפָ֑ה וַתְּהִ֨י לָהֶ֤ם הַלְּבֵנָה֙ לְאָ֔בֶן וְהַ֣חֵמָ֔ר הָיָ֥ה לָהֶ֖ם לַחֹֽמֶר׃

They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them hard.”—Brick served them as stone, and bitumen served them as mortar.—

 The production of bricks implies the existence of  brick makers and brick layers and transporters.  It implies a stratification of society: workers and bosses.    The world of the Tower of Babylon had evolved to this; but a unified world under this structure was intolerable. Peoples were separated by language, and this became nationality. Nationality became a basis for the generalization of hate to a people when elements of that people do horrific things. Nations became a way to defend and instruments of aggression.

 

The last story in the parsha is the migration of Abraham’s father toward Canaan.

יִּקַּ֨ח תֶּ֜רַח אֶת־אַבְרָ֣ם בְּנ֗וֹ וְאֶת־ל֤וֹט בֶּן־הָרָן֙ בֶּן־בְּנ֔וֹ וְאֵת֙ שָׂרַ֣י כַּלָּת֔וֹ אֵ֖שֶׁת אַבְרָ֣ם בְּנ֑וֹ וַיֵּצְא֨וּ אִתָּ֜ם מֵא֣וּר כַּשְׂדִּ֗ים לָלֶ֙כֶת֙ אַ֣רְצָה כְּנַ֔עַן וַיָּבֹ֥אוּ עַד־חָרָ֖ן וַיֵּ֥שְׁבוּ שָֽׁם׃

 

Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan; but when they had come as far as Haran, they settled there.

 

Terach felt the need to leave Ur Kasdim and he needed to take Abraham with him.  Ur Kasdim was dangerous, The government  ( or lack of order) there had resulted in the death of Terach’s son, Haran.

 

The early ancestors of the Jews are portrayed as stateless. People who had to leave their birthplace because they were not protected there.  The need to leave was so great, they had to go to new places as immigrants, where their rights would certainly be fewer and more laxly enforced. This aspect of the Jewish experience starts before Abraham... and continued.  The state of Israel was intended to be a haven.  The events of this week demonstrated that it is not perfect; they also reinforce its necessity.